Virginia voters will weigh in on a new redistricting plan on April 21, the latest in a series of state redistricting measures kicked off by President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans. Trump’s friends at the Family Research Council cheered Texas Republicans, but they are outraged that Virginia Democrats have responded with their own plan that could create more Democratic seats in the state’s congressional delegation.
How did we get here? Faced with the prospect of losing a Republican congressional majority in this year’s midterm elections, the increasingly unpopular Trump started pressuring Republican-led state legislatures last summer to re-draw congressional lines designed specifically to wipe out seats held by Democrats. It was a naked power play to keep power in Republican hands as voters across the board soured on Trump.
Trump was so furious that some Republicans in the Indiana Senate refused to go along that he has been waging a vindictive campaign to replace them in this year’s primaries.
Back to Virginia. Voters will cast ballots on a constitutional amendment that would allow legislators to temporarily bypass the bipartisan commission that now draws the state’s voting maps and would regain the power to do so after the 2030 census. It has become a high-stakes battle featuring deceptive right-wing campaign tactics.
FRC is amplifying the Republican message. “Virginia Dems Plot to Steal 4 House Seats in a Single Vote on April 21” screams the headline on a commentary from Suzanne Bowdey, editorial director of FRC’s “outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview.”
Bowdey quotes FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter claiming that Virginia’s redistricting is “about whether the state’s Christians and conservatives have any representation in Congress.” Bowdey calls it hypocritical and “absurd” that Democrats who promoted a nonpartisan redistricting measure five years ago are changing course for now, even though the Virginia plan is clearly a short-term response meant to blunt the impact of the red-state election-rigging egged on by Trump.
Speaking of hypocritical, FRC cheered in December when the MAGA majority on the Supreme Court approved Texas’s nakedly partisan redistricting plan, which was designed to erase five congressional districts currently held by Democrats. Justice Samuel Alito explained that the majority approved the map because it was drawn for “partisan advantage, pure and simple” and therefore did not violate Voting Rights Act provisions on racial gerrymandering.
The Supreme Court ruling overturned the trial court's finding that the GOP map had aggressively targeted the seats of five Black and Latino members of Congress. "The 2026 midterms could see an unprecedented loss of representation for Black and Latino communities in Texas," noted the Brennan Center.
FRC Action’s Carpenter called the Supreme Court’s ruling “a huge victory in the redistricting war” started by Trump and Texas Republicans, and praised the creation of five new seats likely to be held by Republicans.
The Supreme Court is currently considering another redistricting case that the right-wing majority might use to complete its ongoing dismantling of key protections of the Voting Rights Act. A Republican win in that case, FRC noted hopefully in December, would allow red states “to move forward with partisan redistricting maps, eliminating over a dozen Democrat-held House seats.”